In the development of mobile telephone standards worldwide, different regions of the world have adopted different standards. As such, a user employing a mobile terminal that is designed to operate on a network using a digital mobile telephony standard called “CDMA” (for Code Division Multiple Access) in the region (e.g., the U.S.A.) of home and work may not be able to receive telephone service on the CDMA mobile terminal while traveling in a region wherein the local networks only use a digital mobile telephony standard called “GSM” (for Global System for Mobile Communications). To address this problem, a few telephone manufacturers have developed dual-mode CDMA/GSM mobile terminals. Advantageously, such dual-mode mobile terminals may be configured to operate in a CDMA mode, for instance, while in the home and work region, and may be reconfigured to operate in a GSM mode, for instance, while traveling in a region serviced by a GSM network.
Given that there are differences between the CDMA mode and the GSM mode, for such activities as accepting a second call using the Call Waiting feature, users of such dual-mode mobile terminals are required to learn how to use the mobile terminal in each of the modes. In the case wherein a user of a dual-mode phone in a CDMA-services region may spend 95% of network time in a CDMA home region and may only travel to a GSM region 5% of the time, the user may be reluctant to take the time to learn how to operate the mobile terminal to take advantage of various features of the GSM network. Accordingly, the user may be frustrated that the mobile terminal acts differently when in the GSM region.
From the perspective of the provider of the home (CDMA) network, it may be regarded as disadvantageous to allow the customer to learn, while roaming in a region served by a GSM network with which the provider has a roaming agreement, that the feature set available in a GSM network is richer than the feature set available in a CDMA network. This may be especially important if the home region of the customer is served by a competitive service provider that operates a GSM network.